The Body in Devil Woods

Man, could this town be any creepier? I mean, who names a town Dark Devil Woods, Oregon? That’s just asking for people to fear it.
“Hey, Dylan, pizza’s here!”
Wonderful, I can always trust Richard to pull me from my thoughts back to reality. Ironically, even though we’ve shared the same house for a year now, I rarely get to talk to him without him being distracted. I go downstairs and sure enough, a third of the pizza’s gone, and he is in his room. The sound of a strange, yet oddly familiar, song coming from inside. I knocked and opened the door.
“What game is it this time?” I sighed. The wide screen flashed in rapid succession. Sometimes I feel like his room needs an epilepsy warning.
“I made it. Called it Galaga.”
“Isn’t that already a game?”
“...Uh.. it’s part 2.” He said, hearing the universal dying noise. God, when will he ever stop obsessing over those games? I had my share of the food and put the rest in the fridge. I took a stroll through the city, and maybe I could get back into my thoughts. People always told me I spaced out too much, that I always had my head in the clouds. Is it really that wrong to think things through in your mind? Why can’t I loosen the forever tightening noose that binds me to reality, and drift to a new world, limitless and devoid of all rules and people, quenching my never ending thirst for knowledge? Feeding my curiosity and... I’m pulled from my thoughts as I get sent stumbling backwards.
“Watch it!” A growling voice boomed above me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say bigfoot learned to speak English.
“Sorry, Jacob.”
I watched his face contort into a mix of disgust and confusion.
“Whatever.”
Jacob Shade; even his name freaks me out. Standing a couple inches taller than me (over 6’ 5”) he might as well have been big foot. He is relatively new to this town which is surprising considering he doesn’t and has never had any family who lived here. Showing up to this dead-end place made me wonder how he heard of here and why he chose to come. We don’t have much to offer. We have a small library, an elementary school, a high school, and a couple shops here and there, but nothing special. Nothing to make one want to move here, or even notice us.
I finished my short walk and got home, and that’s when I saw the strangest thing. Richard was outside his room and not on technology? Something had to be wrong. As Richard stood there, I was reminded how thin he was. For someone who sits around all day he looked relatively healthy. Weighing in at about 140 lb. and a little shorter than me at 5’ 10”, he just stood there, not at all bothering to acknowledge I just walked in. I looked as his pale white hands held today’s newspaper.
“Have you seen this yet?” he said, his voice low yet hard. A grim tone became evident as he hands me the paper. He caught my gaze as I took it, and I saw his piercing blue eyes bloodshot from playing video games soften. However, something was off, and through stands of his long black hair I saw his eyes glisten. At first I thought it was his contacts but it was more bright and reflective. Clear tears were forming in his eyes, and judging from his thousand-yard stare he wasn’t just upset. He was petrified. I read the headline and found myself reflecting Richard’s own face. It read: “Man found dead and mutilated!” I felt my body stiffen from shock, and I was shaken to the core as I read on:
“A man was found dead deep in the woods this Thursday by an elderly hiker couple. The weapon used is unknown but guessed to be a heavy, blunt object. The identity of the victim is unknown, for the killer beat him beyond recognition and stole the victim’s wallet.”
They had a picture of the man but covered his face with his hat, most likely to keep from scaring the public even more. However, I knew exactly who it was, he wore a pale yellow jacket and matching shorts. Garbed in shin-high socks and thick hiking boots, he laid sprawled out on the ground, his skin paler than Richard’s and his bright red-orange mustache poking out from the sides of the blurred face.
“Nigel,” I said softly. He was an old friend of mine that loved to go exploring. He even went to Africa with his family. I didn’t know he was back. I thought he was still out venturing around the world. Is his family back too, or did he come back alone? Questions started buzzing through my mind like a gun shooting off ideas at rapid fire. Each one lasted almost a second before the next one flew by.
“Who would do it?” Another rare thing to hear from Richard. He was sad; he already sounded depressed. I knew from his expression it was now my job to get him back into his aloof attitude. I didn’t know what to do what to say. Instinctively I went to hug him. He stood there, as lifeless as a plank of wood. It’s times like these that I remember my days back in highschool.  I always felt like I was looking out for him back then. Clearly the scrawny gamer wasn’t exactly the ruler of the school. I wasn’t a king of the hill either, so naturally we ended up as friends. Being a bit more respected (which isn’t saying much) I was always the one to drag him away from those who sought out to hurt him one way or another. Obviously, this didn’t work everytime and we got into our fair share of scrapes. Still, being almost his guardian, here I was again, trying to protect him from something that wasn’t physical but just as harmful. I don’t know what set him off, maybe the sudden news, maybe he was having a flashback, or maybe my sudden show of compassion, but he broke. He threw his arms around me and started to cry.
“Is there anything we can do?” He asked through short breaths of air.
“He’s gone, we can’t change that.” I solemnly answer. Is there anything we can do? The best I can think of is go to the police and ask if they have any idea on who did it. I don’t know what good that will do, but it’s worth a shot. We headed down to the station and started asking questions.
“Hey, we just read the paper, do you guys have any leads yet?” I questioned.
“Not at the moment,” the officer replied, without even looking up from his computer. He was furiously typing something that I couldn’t read.
“Do you have any idea on what the attacker left behind? Clues, prints, or anything to identify the man behind it?” I pleaded. Knowing both Richard and I were desperate for answers, he finally looked up from whatever he was working on.
“We’ve got nothing at the moment,” there was clear annoyance in his voice, like he was fed up with us asking questions. “If you want to know that badly why don’t you search yourself. Now if you’ll excuse me I have other work to attend to,” he said, looking back down to his work and shooing us off. Richard and I walked out in complete silence, now with anger added to the slowly filling pool of emotions in our heads. We got three feet out the door when Richard stopped.
“You know we could if we wanted to,” he told me.
“What? What do you mean?” I asked, though looking at him I could see the gears slowly turning in his head. He was definitely scheming something.
“Investigate. The cop said, ‘If you want to know that badly why don’t you search yourself.’ So let’s do exactly that.” he said.
“Are you sure that’s legal? I mean, he was being sarcastic,”  however, I was already picturing myself in a Sherlock Holmes outfit with a large magnifying glass. Wait, what was I doing? My friend just died and I’m over here fantasizing about figuring out who killed him.
“Think about it, what better way to avenge our friend than to put the guy who did it behind bars?” He begged, the determination in his eyes told me even if I said no he was going to do it on his own.
“Fine, let’s find the killer.” He got me.
“If we do this, I’ll be the lead while you be the backup. You--” I was cut off when he heard “backup”.
“Hey I knew him well too, I don’t want to be your sidekick!” I wanted to just yell at him that he was being a child, but I knew he was already upset.
“That’s not what I’m saying, I need you to stay back and analyse what I find and make sense of it. You’ve got the most important part, you’re better with computers and noticing all the little details about things thanks to all those years of gaming. Sound good?” Knowing yelling at him or ordering him around wouldn’t work I tried making his job sound better.
“Fine.” He grudgingly agreed. We split up so I could look for clues and he could get back home to make sense of them. I guess I’m left with going into the dark and mysterious woods, finding a dead body, and looking for what caused it. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight.
“Here we go,” I told myself, trying to psych myself up.
Okay, first thing’s first, find the body. Easier said than done. I have to search the entire forest for one body that may or may not have already been moved. God, this is going to take forever.
“Oh,” I already felt sick to my stomach. Well good news is that I found the body 2 hours into searching for it. The bad news is, I found the body. I never knew fear until now, when I saw my dead friend mutilated and surrounded by flies and other insects. Seeing something like this made me have to take a minute just so I could look at it. I pulled out my flashlight and took a look around. I knew that if I touched anything here my finger prints would show up making me a culprit to anyone else who investigated. That leaves me with two options: wear gloves, and take pictures. Having no gloves at the time I took some pictures, one of the corpse and a couple of the surrounding area. In doing so I noticed a red stain in the grass. Then another two feet ahead.
“A trail!” I exclaimed knowing I was onto something.
“Let’s see where this goes…I have to stop talking to myself” I sighed, already annoyed with my own voice. The trail of blood had inconsistent intervals of stains. Some were 2 inches apart, while others were 2 feet.
“Either the blood was dripping from the weapon at different spots, or he wasn’t going at a constant speed.” I mulled over the two ideas, the first one sounded more accurate that the other so I kept following the trail that soon came to an end. Ahead of me however I spotted a break in the woods, where the city and the woods met.
“He must have came out this way, I wonder…” I questioned as I exited the woods.
“Yes perfect.” I said, spotting the object I was looking for. A street camera would have been able to see him if he left the woods through here. I took a closer look at the camera to check which angle it was pointing. Luck was in my favour, it was perfectly pointing at the exit I came out of.
“---- it!” Just when I thought I had a lead it turns out the camera is broken. The best thing for me now is to check what the camera recorded before it broke.
“Looks like I’m going to the police station again." I sighed, they’re gonna love this. Not to my surprise, I was met with a bad attitude that happened to have a face.
“What are you looking for?” the officer questioned. I knew I couldn’t be rude or else I wouldn’t get what I wanted.
“I would like to check the records of a camera that points to the woods.” I said.
“Why would you want to do that?” He spat, quite literally.
“I’m doing a bit of research.” I answered while wiping my face, “Can I just see the tape please?”
“Fine. Wait here.” He hissed as he walked to the back of the station, “Follow me.” He lead me to the back where I saw a large wall of small screens each showing different parts of town. Then there was a screen that wasn’t showing real time.
“That one, why is it paused?” I asked pointing to my target.
“Some punk thought it would be funny to break it.” His eyes were intensely focused on that screen as if he was trying to will it to work.
“Can we rewind it to see who did it?” I asked trying to get him to do the work.
“We can but I could never see the person clearly.” He said as he rewound the tape. He paused it as an person came running across the street. They wore a ski mask and had a bat in hand.
“When was this image recorded?” This information could lead me to the killer.
“Thursday, somewhere between 9 and 11 PM.” He answered. Well that solves one problem; the weapon that was used was a bat. The killer ran out of the woods with a bat, saw the camera, and broke it so it wouldn’t record where he went afterwards. He had to have gone somewhere nearby or else another camera would have seen him.
“Thank you for the help.” I said leaving the station. I went to the house to tell Richard what I have got. On the walk home I saw Jacob again. He was leaning on a wall while on his cell phone. He was talking quietly as if he didn’t want even the person on the other end to hear him. I decided it might be interesting to see what needs to be so secretive. As I walked by him I could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation.
“It’s done… Leaving town…. Bye,” he said in a hushed tone as he looked around and quickly left the scene. I stood there for a second trying to take it all in. Why would he leave town now of all times? Why was he being so secretive? Who was he talking to? Could he have killed Nigel? I left to talk to Richard to clear my mind.
“You’re back!” Richard was ecstatic, I realized once again how much he wanted to help. “What did you find?”
“Okay, so I know the killer used a bat. There is camera footage of a man coming out of the woods with a bat then destroying the camera. He seemed kinda tall so we can start there.” I said.
“Well, the only person that comes to my mind is Jacob Shade,” he choked. We both shared a disliking of the guy.
“Yeah he is definitely a suspect. He was talking to someone on the phone earlier in a hushed tone. Like he was trying to keep the conversation secret. He also said he was leaving town.” I mused over the idea. I big jerk like him could kill if he got angry. He had the looks and the attitude to do it.
“Okay I’m gonna go visit Allen and ask him about the bat. I’ll be right back.” I told him. I left the house finally knowing what to do and where to go. Allen Hackman, who was a know it all in baseball and ran a sports store, would have an answer to my question. This is his home field (no pun intended). I knew if anyone recently bought a bat, they would have to go through him first. As I walked into the store I found him behind the counter doing exactly what he always does. Idolizing his famous bat. The bat was his father’s, and his name was Luther Hackman. He actually played for the Cardinals. Allen stood there polishing the bat and making it look brand new.
“If I didn’t know any better I would say you two are dating.” I teased. I noticed he tensed up a bit when he heard a noise.
“Huh? Oh, hey Dylan. How’ve you been?” He asked.
“I’ve been better considering all that’s happened recently.” I sighed.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that.” He said.
“Sorry? What are you apologising for?” I asked
“I.. I mean you lost a friend so that must be hard on you.” He choked.
“Yeah, I guess. Hey, are you alright? You seem a bit… jumpy.” I asked
“What? Oh, yeah. With all that’s happened I barely get enough sleep.” I answered. It wasn’t until then that I could see the bags under his eyes. His once thick blond hair now greasy and clung to his forehead. His white skin even paler than normal. Which isn’t saying much because the guy normally has a fare tan.
“Yeah about that, I would like to ask you a few questions. Is that alright?” I asked. He seemed a bit hesitant at first, but he took a deep breath and calmed down.
“Yeah sure, what’s on your mind?” I sighed.
“First off has anyone come in here recently? Specifically to buy a bat?” I started.
“Um… no not that I can think of.” He replied.
“How late were you here last Thursday?” I asked.
“I was here pretty late. I went out to dinner then came back to lock up. Once I finished up here it was about 10 PM and I walked home.” He answered. “That’s about the time the killer left the woods” I thought.
“Did you see anyone while you were out? Anyone running around?” I asked.
“Is this about the killer? I warn you you better keep your nose out of it. God knows what Richard would do if you end up hurt or worse.” He warned.
“Alright, calm down, it’s not like I’m in any real danger.” I said.
“For all we know he might be planning on killing again.” He said. After that he put his bat back on it’s shelf and pushed me out of the store.
“Well that was no help.” I sighed. Just then my favourite person came walking down the street. Jacob Shade headed right for my direction. I decided to stop him and ask him questions.
“Hey Jacob, you got a second?” I yelled. He shrugged and walked over to me.
“Can I ask you some questions?” I said. As I said it he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
“For the last time I didn’t kill him.” He said, his tone was surprisingly soft for a guy who looked so tough.
“Everyone has been asking me if I killed him all because of how I look. I have to leave town just to escape it all.” He spoke quietly as if to not draw any more attention.
“Oh, I had no idea. I’m sorry for bothering you.” I felt so bad for the guy I couldn’t pester him any further. He nodded and walk away sulking. After that I went home to tell Richard.
“Really, but he was the prime suspect. He fit all the requirements.” He said.
“Keep in mind we didn’t have much to begin with.” I added.
“Okay fair enough. Still, who else is tall, would gain from killing someone, and has a bat. Just then sirens were blaring all through the streets. I looked out my window just in time to see a glimpse of a cop car disappear around the corner.
“That’s near Allen’s shop.” I said. Richard and I raced toward the nose to see Allen handcuffed and being stuffed in the back of a car. He was crying his eyes out and people could only stand there and watch. I ran past the crowd and asked to speak to Allen. Allen heard me and told the officers to let me through.
“Allen, what happened?” I pleaded.
“It was me, I’m the one who killed Nigel.” he cried. At that moment everything slowed down. My chest felt heavy as my heart sank. It took me a second but I realised it made sense if he did it. The way he jumped when I walked in, his warning to stop trying to find the killer, and the bags under his eyes. The guilt of the murder was keeping him awake. He must have turned himself in to help ease the guilt.
“Why Allen? Why did you kill him!?” I yelled. I was crying. I was upset, betrayed, and furious. What would lead anyone to kill somebody?
“I was confused. I had recently been told my wife wanted a divorce. After the divorce paperwork was finished I was left with less money than normal. After that I started to notice I wasn’t making enough money to pay the morgage on my house. I needed money and fast so I killed a guy to get it.” He paused to collect himself, “I didn’t know it was Nigel. I just found a guy in the woods and…” He couldn’t finish his sentence. The guilt he was feeling must have been strong. I still however didn’t feel guilty for him.
“After that I couldn’t live with what I had done. I tried to kill myself but was too scared to do it. After you came into the store I knew the only way I could begin to pay for what I did was to turn myself in.” He said. After that it was all a blur. I remember what happened but I also remember going numb, for I was in shock. A couple days past before I could finally start returning to my old self again. Thanks to that, I don’t think I’ll ever look at Allen the same way again.